india: a culture too complex to capture

every state has its own culture, its own customs, its own food, its own landscape, and even its own language. only the dress, the family tradition, the cultural festivals and the age-old rituals unite them. in fact, even though Hindi is the national language (with English being a close runner-up), many people don't know more than their local language... this makes a sense of nationalism rather difficult, let alone possible for one administration to govern... as reflected by recent conflicts between the national government pushing industrialization & Progress (probably out of desperation due its debt to the World Bank) and the landless farm-workers & Marxist-led people marching on Delhi (or protesting in Kolkatta) in order to stand up for their rights, their freedom, their land and their heritage amidst encroaching globalization. (as one Indian told us, "where there isn't any running water or electricity, you'll still find coke, pepsi, cellphones and hints of a decaying family structure"... and, yes, walmart is on its way here too.)

yesterday, Heather and I visited a national monument/museum of India's Nobel Prize winner, Rabindranath Tagore (who inspired me to get back to my writing)... leading the country in its own Renaissance movement at the turn of the 20th century, he paved the way to creatively and peacefully take back & save their culture from being corrupted by western influences, which people had begun "following blindly"... we need more leaders like him today! because even though he (& his good friend Gandhi) left India with an incredible legacy of peaceful resistance and a stronger sense of heritage (in fact, one of his poems is now their national anthem), there is still an implicit extreme pressure and national sentiment to strive hard for success. (i'm not sure where it comes from exactly, but it's one of the biggest moral problems that Indians claim to have here... if you come home from school with an 88% on a test, and your parents will scold you for not doing better.)

unfortunately, many people throughout the underdeveloped and developing world are still following the example of the West -- blindly... reflecting on what the West is offering the world, i ask myself:

"Do we want the world to follow our poor example? What are we telling the world by disrespecting our elders, by neglecting our children, by supporting a wasteful & consuming society, by devoting so much importance to a media that demoralizes the human heart, by living up to the title 'fast food nation', by fearing the unknown, by playing the 'us' versus 'them' card all the time, by self-righteously fighting "terror" or by endorsing war in the 'name of God' (i.e. using a religious platform for a political agenda)? What example are we setting for the world?"

since everyone looks up to us, i am seriously worried about what this world is coming to... thank God that the world's salvation is not my burden to bare, and thank God i have the privilege & rational mind to understand that.

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so, we've been in India nearly 6 weeks now, and we've managed to survive, namely by:

• tuning-out the annoyances (like the obsessive horn-honking and the hovering, nearly-glaring, curious onlookers),
• being ever so patient with the differences (like endless interrupting questions & over-insistence to eat, buy, hire, give, sit, say something, stay, and not cleanup after yourself... hoping to leave you with a good enough impression to hurry back),
• admiring the cultural richness (like the religious diversity)
• and staying true to ourselves...

in fact, it's an interesting challenge to think about and seek to understand the complexity of it all without reacting to anything... constantly humbling myself, quietly observing, respectfully asking questions, non-judgementally listening, dissolving mental & emotional boundaries, and still expanding my comfort zone.

one very important part of this process (through every culture) requires that we suspend our opinionated logic long enough to carefully understand the differences in the logic here.

take the environment, for example. while you might find people habitually dropping their trash wherever (which accumulates everywhere fast), Indians are not at all wasteful. (seems ironic, doesn't it?) they limit their consumption, they recycle by creatively reusing, they use water instead of toilet paper (for the most part), they depend on public transportation or they use minimum-waste vehicles (trains, auto- or cycle-rickshaws, bicycles, buses, motorcycles), and there is a growing number of environmental & public health NGOs that are beginning to make a remarkable difference here.

next, take arranged marriages. from what i understand, the ideal arranged-marriage is one where families very carefully select life-partners for their children (through a series of "profile" exchanges, reference checks, personal interviews and then a vote by the groom-to-be), then the couple grows to love each other over time (establishing a committed partnership), and then the two wedded families are equally held accountable for the success of the marriage. if something goes wrong, they have their two families to support them. (supposedly in a love-marriage, they don't have that kind of support, because the families aren't to blame for the success of your relationship.) ... of course, this doesn't always happen this way. for example, some families still "marry off" their children for money -- illegally practicing the dowry system of arranged marriages whereby the bride's family "pays off" the groom's family to ensure good care of their daughter, who usually doesn't have any choice or say in the matter. (although, this is changing a little bit now in major cities.)

so what about the overt subordination, exploitation and submission of women? for example, the wife is expected not to eat with her family or husband at a meal but to serve them only. also, most women are often blatantly excluded from debates, discussion and decision-making... yeah, so, i'm still trying to figure that one out.

finally, take religious diversity & cultural sensitivity. one interesting common sentiment here is that everyone claims to have a religious tolerance of each other. while this theory is practiced in an initial, superficial, welcoming sort of way, it is definitely not always practiced on a deeper level between folks... even still, it permeates into the culture in the form of religious/cultural festivals, tourism, commercialism, and media. for example, as one woman recently reminded us, Hinduism is a more of a way of life than a religion: they get up early, do their yoga, light their candle & incense, say their prayers, work hard, respect others and stay faithful to "their god." (note, she did not say "gods" because she's a devotee to Krishna; however, she also said that she still believes in and prays to Jesus.) from what i understand, there is a sense of security in this type of pluralistic way of thinking, believing & living, so you'll find hints of it everywhere with every god or guru represented... the bottom line is that Hinduism is so much a part of the culture, the society, the tradition & the dress (even the bindis and the sarees) that anything else is not truly Indian. in fact, now you'll find all Indians (regardless of their religion of choice) practicing these age-old Hindu customs.

which brings me to another part of Indian logic that i still can't fully grasp: the culturally- and psychologically-ingrained Hindu legacy of the caste system (i.e. religious intolerance via social hierarchy)... at the very bottom of which you'll find Christians (below the "untouchables") and at the very top of which you'll find upper-eschelon Hindu priests... in fact, here's an interesting picture of what Christians face in this country:

... in India, becoming a Christian isn't just a case of crying 'hallelujah' and digging Jehovah instead of Siva and his henchmen, it's a case of voluntarily ostracising yourself from society. Hindus reject those of their faith who switch to another: after all, you are born a Hindu and will die a Hindu, and that's all there is to it.

i couldn't have said it better... except to add that Christians are the minority (only about 3% of the entire population), so their faith is that of a set of true & liberated survivors -- humbly & lovingly battling all odds against an overwhelming & oppressing society... and knowing that everyone is equal at the foot of the cross.